Two passionate individuals, one community project; South Coast Artist Profiles

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South Coast Artist Profiles

Some ideas come out of the blue. Others take a bit more time. The concept behind the South Coast Artist Profiles took several years to percolate and, to extend the metaphor, is still brewing.

It all started around 1980 with an article in the Standard-Times stating, “Researcher seeks clues about these artists.” It was a list containing 127 artists. The author of the article, Mary Jean Blasdale, was trying to find information on them and was asking for, “…a name, a birthday, an exhibition date…”

After ten years of research, the Artists of New Bedford A Biographical Dictionary was published by the Old Dartmouth Historical Society in 1990. The book is now out of print.

Ms. Blasdale’s book and a series of other events eventually led to the creation of the South Coast Artist Profiles website (www.southcoastartistprofiles.com).

The South Coast Artist Profiles is a website project that brought together two individuals. Ron Fortier has an MFA in painting and ended up spending three decades in marketing and advertising. Jeff Wotton wanted to go to art school but opted instead for a business education and operates a marketing agency.

They combined their love for art and their marketing experience and designed a website that incorporates the social relationship aspects found in Facebook, the business networking power of Linked In and the legacy and traceable connectivity of Ancestry.com in order to record the lives and activities of current South Coast Artists.

Fortier began the project as a blog and wrote articles about local artists including his mother who was a Fado singer in the 1950s and 60s. Writing that article made him realize that, other than his childhood experiences and memories of her career, there was nothing physically available to testify to her talent or her existence as an artist.

One thing led to another and the two men joined forces to create the South Coast Artist Profiles. The web project has three core components; the Profiles, a webpage resume for individual artists which is compiled into a directory of artists, the Index; a supportive database built with information from contributing artists, from researchers and readers and, an online Magazine containing articles about the cultural and creative community written by our writers and contributing writers.

Their ultimate goal is the documentation of the lives and activities of the individuals, both past and present, who represent the cultural and creative community and, who drive the local creative economy.  They intend to document the individuals, the institution and the icons which have shaped the creative and cultural community of this area.

To be successful, they need the support of the entire South Coast Massachusetts community. And, although documenting the living can be challenging, as Mary Jean Blasdale can attest to, documenting the dead has its own challenges.

With that in mind, the South Coast Artist Profiles website project is also developing a component called the Luminarium Profiles in order to be successful in spreading the word about the history, the achievements and, the vibrancy and the creative and cultural legacy of the South Coast.

For further information please visit the website at www.southcoastartistprofiles.com, contact the publishers at http://southcoastartistprofiles.com/contact-us or, email them directly at info@southcoastartistprofiles.com


About Michael Silvia

Served 20 years in the United States Air Force. Owner of New Bedford Guide.

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